1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling, closing, and packing beverage bottles.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
The present application also relates to a method for the manufacture of container packages and for the packing of containers in container carriers, such as outer boxes, covering boxes, or wholesale boxes, for example, as well as a device for the performance of the method. The present application therefore relates in one exemplary embodiment for example to container packages that are in the form of a box-shaped recipient made of a blank of folding flat material with corresponding side walls, whereby the box-shaped recipient can be open on the top. These container packages also have partitions made of an additional blank of folding flat material, which when folded out form corresponding dividers or webs for to protect the containers to be packaged from impacts and to keep them in place during transport.
DE 23 56 319 A1 discloses a method for the opening of folded-up dividers and for the insertion of the opened dividers in container packages, whereby the folded or collapsed divider is set upright into a first position, from which it is advanced by means of a transport device activated by suction force, is thereby opened and transported into a second position above the container, fixed in said second position and finally inserted into the opened container package. During the transfer of the divider from the first position into the second position, the divider is opened by a 90° pivoting of a transverse web of the transport device which is activated by suction force.
The opened divider is then inserted partway into a container package and is finally pushed down to the bottom of the container package by a vertically movable presser or stamp. Apart from the multiple steps required for the insertion of a divider, one additional significant disadvantage is that these steps, which must be carried out one after another, can only be performed with the machine in discontinuous operation.
DE 30 33 773 A1 discloses, among other things, a method for the manufacture of container carriers and for the packing of containers in such container carriers. According to this prior art document, separately manufactured flat blanks for a container carrier and for a set of partition inserts are delivered to a packaging plant. The partition insert, which is either prefabricated or fabricated in the packing plant, is unfolded to form divided fields and is brought together with a group of containers. The unfolded partition insert is placed over the prepared group of containers from above. In practice, the method is carried out so that groups of containers are pushed onto the bottoms of container carrier blanks as the blanks are lying flat, and the dividers with the unfolded transverse webs are then inserted from above between the rows of container groups. The side walls of the container carrier blank are then folded against the long sides of the containers. The end-side connecting straps of the middle walls and the end walls of the container carrier blanks are also folded against the transverse sides of the containers and are glued to one another. The latter action occurs at a right angle to the direction of transport.
The prior art also discloses devices that are designed to remove the spacers between layers, dividers or webs while they are still folded flat, one after another by means of the gripper device of a charging unit, which transports the web in the horizontal direction, opens them and then transfers them to a vertical device, with which the opened webs can be inserted in a box that contains bottles or similar objects. Units of that type have the disadvantage that the webs, which are generally made of cardboard, can be damaged during the transfer from one device to the other. The entire cycle also takes a very long time between the time the web is picked up and inserted into the box, because a certain amount of time is necessary for the horizontal movement for the transport between the devices. Finally, extreme care is necessary to guarantee a correct positioning between the devices for the horizontal and vertical movement, because otherwise the unit must be turned off.
Finally, the prior art also discloses that the setup, conversion and insertion processes can be done in one in continuous operation. For this purpose a device is used for the extraction of a separating insert or of a divider in the flat, folded position and for the opening and insertion of the separating insert or divider into a container package or a box, which device has an individual gripping device with which an L-shaped movement can be executed with the simultaneous opening of each divider and a placement of the divider into the box under the action of gravity. The final bottom position of the dividers positioned between the bottles, cans and similar objects is then achieved by means of vibrator devices or vibrating tables.
One disadvantage of this method is the uncontrolled transfer of a divider, which is simply dropped into place. In particular at high speeds, the dividers repeatedly tip as they fall down onto the formations of bottles, with the resulting disruptions of machine operation.